Sunday, May 18, 2008

A Visit to the World's Most Famous Ranch!

Howdy folks. Jared, here. Most of us who view this blog are not old enough to remember the TV show "Dallas" with J.R. and the Ewing family. It was a huge hit in the 70s and early 80s. When I was in high school I was a tour guide and tram driver at the ranch where the TV show was filmed. When we got to Texas I wanted Shannon, Kailee, and Jacob to get a true Texas experience, so I took them out to my old stomping grounds. We saw the famous Ewing mansion and even got to see real longhorns. We had a blast and I feel like Shannon was officially baptized into the Texas community. It brought back a flood of memories with good friends and good times.


And this woman to the right is the one who made it all possible, Mrs. Southfork Ranch herself, the famous Sally Peavy. Sally was my boss for four years and now she is one of the head-honchos. She was so kind in taking two hours out of her day to treat us to lunch, dessert, and a tour of the whole place. As I mentioned, I wanted Shannon to feel baptized and immersed into the Texas community. Sally's boisterous spirit and loveable and unique Texas accent gave Shannon and Jacob a chance to know how great true Texans can be. Thanks Sally!


Shannon, Kailee, me and Jacob in front of the fireplace with Jock Ewing hanging over us.

Kailee loved all the space of this huge Texas ranch.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Kailee and the Komputer

Kailee has learned at a young age to follow mama's footsteps. Someday she'll be a great blogger! When Shannon and I arrived in Texas we didn't have any furniture moved in for the day except the piano bench. We put the computer on the bench and as soon as it was set up Kailee darted toward. We got a good laugh at her skills with home-row finger positions and her ability to switch from the keyboard to the mouse. She's on track to start her own blog by age two!

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

With some BAD luck... we made it!

The night before we left, Jared ran over a screw and we got a flat tire, so after dinner we got that fixed at Walmart (our tires were under warranty!) Then, we left at like 5ish the next morning with Jared driving the U-haul and me, my cousin, Ben, and Kailee in the car. We had only gone 30 miles when we got ANOTHER flat tire...different tire. My thoughts... "You have got to be kidding me." So, Ben put on the spare, and we drove about an hour going 45 mph in a 70mph zone to Price and waited there about 20 mins. for Walmart to open and we actually needed a new tire (still under warranty... YAY!) Then we were on our way! Kailee did great. She took her naps in the car and was pretty patient which was surprising. Normally she get so ancy after like 20 minutes in the car. We had lots of books, toys, and snacks to keep her busy! We did the trip in 2 days and arrived in Texas safely!! I was so glad my cousin Ben came with me to help me drive and entertain Kailee. Kailee adored him. About an hour after we arrived at our new apartment, which we love, Jared's sister, Jamie, and brother, Colby, and Jamie's 2 girls arrived at our place to help us unpack on Monday. They drove 4 hrs. just to help us; talk about a great family! Jamie's little girls are adorable. Ocean is 3 and Eden is Kailee's age. Jamie even brought stuff to make us dinner Sunday night. We like to call her the bomb.com!
Ben, Kailee, and Jared in the back of Jared's Dad's car at Walmart while we waited for our tire to get fixed....we actually went across the street to Cracker Barrel for dinner!
MORE BAD LUCK...Believe it or not... we purchased a washer and dryer and upon delivery discovered we had the wrong dryer cord, so the delivery guys left Jared to install the dryer by himself after he went to exchange the cords. So, after Jared hooks up the cord, as he goes to stand up, he gashes his knee on the round, metal dryer duct thingy. He calmly says... "Shannon, hurry, call 911." Of course, I freak out. I'm in the other room playing with Kailee and I run in to see his knee gushing with blood and I'm scared and I remember, our BYU insurance just expired and we hadn't gotten Jared new insurance yet. Just our luck. So, we decide I'll just drive him to the hospital, don't want an ambulance bill too. I was also worried because I was just about to put Kailee down for a nap and we know NO ONE here who can help me watch her and so I'm worrying that she'll be super cranky at the hospital. We were there 3 hours and she was actually really good. She finally fell asleep in my arms for a half hour and then we went home and she went back to sleep. Jared got 15 stitches and was in a knee immobilizer and on crutches for 5 days. Today he is walking around without either and finally started selling pest control. He was a little bored being a stay at home parent with me for 5 days, lol. He said while folding laundry with me, "it is not good for man to be at home," lol Also, as you can see in the pic, he decided he wanted to go short, so I kindof buzzed his head this morning! Doesn't he look great!

And to top off the great news that we made it to Texas and we love our 1300 sq. ft. apartment... my brother, Jacob, who just got off his mission arrived Monday night! He's staying in our 3rd bedroom for the summer and is selling pest control with Jared. He's awesome. If you're wondering why his hair looks so good too, it's because I cut it! Kailee adores him already! In conclusion of this long post, I still have ZERO friends, lol. Last sunday was a tri-stake conference that we didn't know about. We knew from looking online that our church was at 12:30, but saw tons of cars at church Sat. night, so we thought it might be stake conference. So, we went to our building, the stake center, at 10 and 12 on Sunday, and both times the parking lot was empty. We found out later there was a tri-stake conference at some college. So, we didnt' make it to church last Sunday and therefore I still haven't made any friends. I have yet to see one baby in our apartment complex. :( Hopefully I will find some friends soon... I miss Wymount. Kailee misses having friends to play with. Hurry up and come, Allie! OH yes, last good news to share... Jared made it through 2 interviews and has his 3rd interview with 2 principals for the school district he would like to teach at. Just not sure when the interviews are. But he made the 2nd cut!! Yeah! Wish him luck.

GRADUATION!!

Jared's sister, Amie and Kailee can say her name!
Jared's parents at graduation. Yep, that's my mother-in-law... hot stuff, huh!



Jared and his PROUD parents!
Kailee drawing in Amie's coloring book during graduation.


Jared's "bad to the bone" pose!
Jared's fam... half of it.

Jared's sister, Amie! Isn't she cute :)



More Pics!

Kailee was just as excited about moving as we were; she loved climbing on boxes and pulling stuff out of boxes I was trying to pack, lol!
Precious sleeper
Here is Kailee trying to get inside the fridge while my friend, Lindsey, was trying to clean it out!
Kailee was quite excited that she was able to get inside the laundry basket!
We had one last sleepover with Jared's siblings, Kevin and Amie! We had pizza, ice cream sandwiches, and watched "Alvin and the Chipmunks"... good times!

Here they are pretending to be asleep.
Kailee loves to try and put clothes on and she is lucky if she manages to get something even kindof on.
She is pretty proud of her accomplishment!
I love this shirt... "What happens at Grandma's stays at Grandma's"
Yep, still hates wearing headbands :(



This is Kailee wanting to drive Granny's car!

Justin Gardner (middle guy) served a mission in my home ward when I was like 11 or 12 and has been good friends with our family ever since. He's married to Steph and they have 4 awesome kids! They are a fun, crazy bunch. We went to Louis and Sophie's soccer game and then we all went out to lunch. It was good to see them again before we headed out to Texas!


Thursday, April 24, 2008

We're off to TEXAS!

Jared graduates tomorrow and we're off to Texas. Wish us luck on the 20 (probably like 26 with Kailee) hr. drive. Poor Kailee. Poor Mommy. We will miss Utah, BYU, Jared's family, all of our many friends, the mountains, and especially the snow...NOT. I wonder if we can make as good of friends in Texas as we have made here. We had the greatest church ward with sooooo many nice, wonderful people living right next to us. We sure will miss being able to step next door to borrow an egg, call our neighbor to watch Kailee for a few minutes while Mom goes to get the laundry, etc. If I ever wanted to learn how to do ANYTHING or needed anything, there was always a neighbor I could call. I have so many friends that shared recipes with me, 2 friends taught me how to sew, and I had so many friends to share mothering tips with. I got great advice almost everyday! We'll miss so many things about Wymount (our apartment complex). Though small (650 sq. ft.), it really is heaven on earth. Thank you to all of our friends in Utah for being our friends; we'll miss you! Bon Voyage!

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Daddy's girl!! (But Mommy's girl too)

After about an hour of entertaining herself during Conference, Kailee was really craving some attention, so Daddy dumped out all of her toys and they played together. Kailee was so excited!
"Yee-Haw!"

Kailee LOVES books. She loves to bring us one book at a time and have us read it. Here Daddy is showing Kailee some cool, new books he bought her at school for a really good deal. Kailee was thrilled!
Night nights!
After loving Hadlie's binky, I gave Kailee her old binky she never liked to see if she liked it now and wala... she does. I just had to get a picture before Jared took the binky away. Though it's soooo cute, there's no need to start our 14 month old on a binky now.


Kailee's giggles!

Pouting!

Vocal exercises with Daddy!

Jared thought he was being so funny. It was cute, but I told him "let's just hope she doesn't start doing this in church!!"

Kailee and the Pacifier...

Here's a pretty Easter dress her Nana got for her!
Isn't she a doll?!
These are the bunny ears Granny got for her, which she loves!
Kailee sometimes does not like to wear bibs, so I put it on her doll instead and let her doll eat with her. I even pretended to feed the doll too and Kailee was so intrigued... she thought it was a very fun game!
Here she is puckered about to give her doll kisses!
Kailee has never liked pacifiers; when she was a baby, she would always spit them out. When the our dear friends, the Ballard's, came over for dinner, Kailee took Hadlie's pacifier and played with it for the rest of the evening. She loved sticking it in her mouth and walking to the mirror to look at herself. It was pretty cute and made me wish she was a binky girl. But, there's no use getting her addicted to the binky now.
This is Hadlie wondering why Kailee has overtaken her binky.

Monday, April 14, 2008

The Brains (and Looks) Behind this Operation

Hello, all. This is Jared here reporting with my first post to our family blog. I like to check the blog frequently and admire the great job that Shannon does. There is only one thing that I am disappointed in: there are not enough pictures of her! She seems to love writing about Kailee and I but is very modest in writing about herself. So today, I cracked open the old camera and voi-la!!!...here we are. I just wanted all of you bloggers to know what a great wife and mom Shannons is. She is so attentive to Kailee and I and always does her best to make us happy...even when we both get a little fussy at times (meaning Kailee and I--sometimes me more than Kailee!). For example, the other day I came home from school and this beautiful little creature above had cleaned the house, packed loads of boxes, taken care of Kailee, and had dinner on the table. On top of that she has been arranging all of our living affairs in Texas. She would never let you know this but she has even taken an active role in doing online job applications for me. To sum it up, Shannon is pretty great. She is my sugar-plum-hunny-bun. (Really her favorite nic-name is Shnooky-wookums.) I love her and I just wanted you all to know that I think she is the best. Lucky me. Lucky Kailee.